RO/DI Jug Collapsed

ArtsyAxolotl · May 4, 2017

A little bit ago, my dad went to get a jug of ro/di water to top off his palludarium (he keeps crabs so he's very concerned about copper), and he found that one of his water bottles had imploded. Literally, the gallon jug was crumpled right down the center like someone had squeezed it from cap to base, and there was water everywhere. Only the one was like this; his other 3 jugs were fine. None of mine (4 salt and 2 fresh) have done this. There was a small crack in the side of the jug along one of the folded ridges but I think that split might have come from it collapsing.

Has anyone ever had a jug of water just... crumple like this before? I'm mostly just curious about the science behind something like this happening. Seems odd. Just curious.

reefwiser · May 5, 2017

It wasn't being used was it? I have seen this when people pull water out of a sealed container without a weep hole in the lid. Don't know what you where using for a container either. Some people use pretty light weight plastic containers for water storage.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 5, 2017

The science is likely that a leak allowed water to come out from low down, and gravity pulled the water out. Instead of leaving relative vacuum above the water, the relatively weak plastic crumpled in just as it would if you sucked out the air.

In drug discovery where I work, I've seen pill bottles collapse inward if the medication reacts with O2, reducing the pressure inside.

ArtsyAxolotl · May 14, 2017

Hi, thanks for the reply guys. Some stuff came up and I forgot to reply to this. That makes perfect sense, actually. I didn't think of that. They're plain gallon water jugs. Acadia distilled water, mostly. Except filled with RO/DI water.